How do you sum up yesterday? Is it a feeling of optimism in the air that hasn’t been felt in the last 10 years (or longer)? Is it the thrill of the future coming one day, yet a huge leap, closer? Is it the euphoria of bringing together of the largest gathering of people the country has ever seen?

This is what I did: I found out the night before that Chris & Jeff were having an inauguration breakfast at 8 and then leaving the school (their home) around 9. After Sunday’s madhouse trying to get home after the inaugural concert, I  seriously contemplating staying home and watching it on tv.

I set an alarm for 8, hoping that I could rally and meet up with them by 9. I knew the 8:00am breakfast was out of the question. At 8:20 I pull myself out of bed, knowing that if I hit the snooze one more time I’ll miss out on joining them.

I have neglected finishing this for three days now—maybe because I can’t believe it’s real.

I meet up with the gang on Maryland Ave since it was the closest place with two groups meeting in a straight line. The gang is: Judy, Velma, Ammiie(e), Jen, Cari (?), Kimmie, Scott 1, Doug, Shawn, Olive, Scott 2, Princess. Did I leave  anybody out? While waiting for them I used my debit card for the first time in five weeks at Jacob’s: small regular coffee, $1.86.

From there we start to join the masses walking towards the Capitol. We’re directed south of the Cap (because going north would mean crossing Pennsylvania Ave—the parade route) and already all the streets are closed off to vehicles and the streets are full of people. Turning south on Independence we skirt the Cap for a while until we are forced to swing it wide, south and way around to L’Enfant Plaza, where we’re actually walking on a closed freeway. Can you believe this craziness? And before that we saw the elevated freeway of 395 which was basically being used as a tour bus parking lot. Incredible.

After being routed back onto Independence around the Smithsonian castle we’re noticing that all entrances onto the Mall (just a block north of us) are closed off due to maximum capacity. At this point I’m starting to get a really bad feeling that we’re going to be standing on Independence Ave while Obama is getting sworn in.

20 minutes later we’re down to the Washington Monument and we see some clearing of people. We head over there and after some slight pushing and maneuvering we’re all situated in a great place to watch (considering), about 20 feet south of the Monument, with flags standing outright in the wind. Have I mentioned how cold it was? Yeah, it was about 30° before the wind chill. We don’t care, we’re all bundled up and ready for the proudness.

The atmosphere around us is euphoric, and in a political sense something I’ve felt only before at the 1992 Democratic Convention, being on the floor while Bill Clinton gave his speech. I’ve never been more proud or hopeful.

The aftermath: of course the entire ceremony is fantastic. We’re all in great moods and now starting to evacuate along with two million other people. Everything is fine until we get to L’Enfant Plaza (retracing our steps) where all the out-of-towners are trying to crowd onto the two Metro stops there. It’s crazy, it’s a Who concert circa 1978, it’s starting to get dangerous. We double back and find a way out and around the madness and then continue the walk home.

Chris & Jeff have invited everybody back to the school for chili, which is what everybody desperately needs on such a cold day. We eat (it turns into a feast) grab cocktails from Dick & Kitty’s and head up to their airplane room, which is where their home theater is. We watch taped events of the day unfold, and it is only then that I see the aerial shots and I’m in awe of the day and the people and the participation.

Here’s the Kicker

It’s around midnight, we’re all exhausted (those who are still awake) and it’s time to leave. Walking the five blocks home, I come up to C St which has motorcycle cops closing off the streets, Secret Service black minivans SUVs everywhere, and I am being told to STEP BACK from the sidewalk. Thirty seconds later, with flashing red and blue lights, comes THE MOTORCADE. Obama’s new tank/limo, complete with presidential seal speeds by. Is this real? They whiz by, traveling way too fast but they’ve got all the side streets closed off so the traffic lights don’t even matter. Once they’re gone, I ask one of the cops “Was that him?” and he says “Yeah, that was him.”

It was nice to have the Prez speed by my house, kinda returning the favor of doing all that walking just to go and see him.

Note: some of these photos were pilfered from friends.

Staying up until 4:00 am watching Michelle Obama interviews isn’t the wisest thing to do after you’ve set an alarm for 9:00 the next morning.

I’ve set the alarm for 9, knowing that Bernice would be here by 10, we’d be at Buck’s by 11 and then down to the National Museum of the American Indian on the Mall to see Ateya perform by 12:15. I hadn’t heard back via text from Bernice by the morning so when my alarm went off I hit a snooze or two. And then I just turned the damned thing off.

At 11:00 I figured it was time to get up, still trying to decide whether I would head down to the Mall by myself or not. Then I noticed Buck’s email, sent at 10:30, asking if we were still on. I replied back a “yes” and quickly got in the shower. I’m out the door in 15 minutes, telling Buck to meet me at Eastern Market Metro and we’d ride down together. We had originally planned on walking the entire way, but now with our time crunch a two-stop Metro ride would get us there just in time. On the way I talked with Bernice and she was definitely out.

Buck and I arrive at NMAI a little after noon and luckily find no line to get in. We made it! Then I picked up a program that said KanKouran, the West African dance troupe Ateya is with, is actually performing at 12:45. So we have a little bit of time to explore the museum. This also gives us time to get together with Anya, a friend of ours who works at the Museum.

We didn’t know that Ateya wasn’t performing that day with Kankouran but they still gave a great performance. You might remember me writing about their performance when I saw them at Lisner a couple of years ago.

Part of NMAI’s “Out of Many” festival, also performing that day was a deaf dance group that Buck was once a part of, The Wild Zappers, and he wanted to see them too. They went on at 2:00 and although they had some technical difficulties they were still very good. I learned how to clap in sign language!

President-Elect Barack Obama brings his campaign site into the real, incorporating messaging from his campaign site and his iPhone app. This is a first for a Prez-Elect, but I doubt W had the savvy to do this eight years ago so we’ll probably be seeing everyone do this from here on out. The new site contains all his stance on the issues of his campaign as well as new press releases. You can leave your story of how this historic election has affected you. There’s info about Michelle on there, too.

Topic of the next 72 days: are you making preparations for the Inauguration? If you live here, are you taking the day off? If you don’t live here, are you planning to travel in?